On Batwoman season 1, episode 16, Kate, Jacob, and Alice have to hide Cartwright’s body after Kate’s kill, while Alice seeks Kate’s help to find and stop Mouse after his father broke him with the fear toxin.

Batwoman season 1, episode 16 brings the Kane sisters together, and just as quickly, tears them apart. Alice helps Kate hide Cartwright’s body after her kill on Batwoman season 1, episode 15, and Kate helps Alice find and reunite with Mouse.

This is a big episode for the Kane sisters in terms of their relationship, pushing them forward in some ways, while majorly setting them back in others.

Elsewhere, Sophie’s life is in danger as she and Jacob continue to dig into the mystery surrounding the Crows’ involvement in the Lucius Fox murder case, and find out what exactly happened / who paid off the storekeeper to lie for them, while Luke gets an extremely rude awakening.

‘Batwoman’ season 1, episode 16 review

Batwoman season 1, episode 16: another episode better than the last. I absolutely adore that the focus of each episode stays so strictly on Kate, Alice, Mary, and Sophie.

These are the four characters that make this show, and while I’m excited to see more of Luke and to finally see some development for him, I hope the series maintains the strict focus on the four women.

Gearing up as we begin heading into the final episodes of the season, it’s clear the series is setting up a major change in the story. The focus has been on Alice, almost entirely, but now we have two more villains: Mouse and the person who killed Luke’s father.

It seems, at least for the rest of the season, that the focus is really going to fall on the murderer, as Sophie, Jacob, and Luke all have a stake in this story. Plus, with Julia around (thankfully!), there’s another character who is involved in this big conspiracy.

Every episode feels more powerful and bigger than the last, and this one is no different. I’m so thankful to be watching this show live and seeing the incredible growth between every episode, and this is truly the best first season of any Arrow-verse show. (Hopefully with production having shut down before the end of the season, it doesn’t ruin that!)

Kate and Alice

I really enjoyed watching Kate and Alice bond on Batwoman season 1, episode 16, even if it came at the most unhappy of times for Kate. It really opened Kate’s eyes — and the audience’s eyes — to who Alice is, what drives her, and how much she wants a relationship with her sister. Additionally, this gave us a change of pace for Kate, which was unexpected.

I’m surprised (kind of) that Kate betrayed Alice, and I’m so disappointed she did. From what Kate said to Julia at the end of the episode, it wasn’t to keep Gotham safe at all.

She betrayed Alice because she was seeing parts of herself in her sister, and it terrified her. Once again, Kate turned her back on Alice, which is only going to drive her further away (and like, being in isolation in Arkham is just going to re-traumatize Alice since it’s a lot like her childhood).

I’m more surprised that Alice actually kept her word, and I’m so disappointed that Kate broke Alice’s trust, once again.

This could have been when Kate slowly started to get Alice back, to help her see the light and embrace the sister Kate lost long ago, but now she’s even further gone. This is perhaps the worst thing Kate has ever done to Alice, and I don’t see their relationship ever recovering now.

However, their relationship is the centerpiece of Batwoman, and it’s so clear that this show will not work without Alice, so I’m sure there will be future circumstances that would bring these two sisters together again.

For being the Paragon of Courage, Kate acted rather primarily out of fear on this episode. Everything she did was because she was afraid, and as much as others may tell her otherwise, her prime reason for betraying Alice was fear. Fear of her sister, their relationship, but above all, fear of herself.

Kate lost a bit of herself when she killed Cartwright, and she’s going to blame Alice for that until she can accept that it was her loss of control that caused her to commit that act of pure rage.

Maybe Alice will be able to understand why Kate did what she did in the future, but it’s clear that Alice is only going to go on an even darker path now. Kate broke Alice in a way Cartwright never did, and it’s going to be nearly impossible for that to be forgiven.

As for Kate on her own, I’m really glad we’re seeing this story play out. Kate killed someone — at least it was someone awful — and she needed to learn that she isn’t a god, she isn’t perfect, and while she might not be on the same level as Alice (despite Alice’s claims), she has her own demons to deal with.

Kate’s played the perfect hero role quite well so far, but it was time for her to be knocked off of her game, and it’s clearly working. This episode felt like we saw more growth from Kate individually than the past 15 episodes combined.

Luke and Sophie

It’s good to see Luke, after all of this time, finally get some character development on Batwoman season 1, episode 16. His father’s murder is the most defining part of his past that we’re aware of and has majorly shifted the direction of his life.

While he had peace thinking his father’s murderer was captured and imprisoned, that illusion is now shattered, and likely will be for quite some time.

Now that the truth is out and there’s a murderer to be caught, I’m interested and excited to see how this impacts Luke’s daily life and how it changes how he assists Batwoman from the Batcave.

I hope Luke teams up with Sophie as she investigates this from the inside, since her and Jacob know the Crows were in on the coverup.

His technological skills may be useful, and I wouldn’t even be surprised if Luke ended up being like Winn on Supergirl and moving over to work for the Crows in the future. For now, I hope we see much more development and focus on Luke as this story heats up!

This investigation presents a unique opportunity for the show to evaluate whether the Crows do more harm than good, and for Sophie to take a look at her life and see if she needs to course correct.

Her brief investigation has already almost gotten her killed, and this could bring Batwoman back into Sophie’s life as she puts herself in more danger to find the truth (and Kate would have another reason to help find the truth, other than her friendship with Luke).

I love any episode with focus on Sophie, and I enjoy that her story is about more than just her sexuality. She’s clearly a badass, and it’s so important to explore her role with the Crows as well and all of the skills she’s gotten that help her survive and fight for justice in Gotham.

Plus, her relationship with Jacob is touching, and I’d like to see how exactly they became close enough that she’s the only person he trusts with what’s going on.

I’d also be interested in seeing Julia stick around, and maybe something happening between her and Sophie. There was clearly something in the air there, and even though Julia and Kate kissed at the end of the episode, that doesn’t mean anything with Sophie is off-limits.

Let’s see Sophie actually explore her sexuality before she becomes romantically involved with Kate again, so we can avoid the story later on where they break up so she can. We don’t want that… at all.

‘Batwoman’ season 1, episode 16 final thoughts

It’s honestly so sad to see what Kate and Jacob did to Alice on Batwoman season 1, episode 16. Their family was finally making some progress at coming back together, and now it’s shattered and unlikely we’ll ever see what could have been. It’ll never be “right,” but it could be something, and Kate and Alice made a lot of progress before that fateful decision.

Mary’s, like, the best person ever, and I would 100% be down to see the romantic vibes between her and Luke explored. They’re clearly headed there, and those two have so much in common, it could work really well. But can Mary just be told Kate’s big secret already?

Three weeks is going to be so long to wait for the next episode.

Batwoman continues Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW!